Preview Round 2, 2022: Fremantle v St.Kilda - Optus Stadium, Sunday 27th March, 6:20PM AEDT

[BrutThough]

The thing with Higgins is he wants be the best. He wants to win games. He has that confidence and ego to be a game changer. He’s been like that ever since juniors.

I do like that trait in him. Not many players posses it.

But his decision not to pass it off was plain dumb. He’ll learn. I’m sure of it.

Tipping him to have a blinder this week. Dropping him isn’t going to do anything. He’ll come straight back in.

Back this bloke in

Next time, he needs to fully commit to the goal instead of Butler in a 2 on 1. That was his bigger mistake.

A small fwd of Higgins caliber should be able to kick that goal.

 

[Mowman]

Not much dare or risk taking last week. I tend to agree, go down having a crack not pissing the bed quietly as the game runs away from us. There were plenty of stupid acts in that match, if we dropped them all for them we'd need the covid supplementary list in.

Jesus imagine Higgins out and Kent stays in
Think I would pull stumps on the year LOL

 

[Diehard Saint]

Have you seen it ?

it was plain dumb

It 100% cost a goal, we either set standard or allow that stuff to continue

The dumb thing is he could have run in further and kicked it himself.
No one said he was a rocket scientist.

 

[George]

Jesus imagine Higgins out and Kent stays in
Think I would pull stumps on the year LOL

Then Battle on the wing and Carlisle up forward to complete the set.

 

[Mowman]

Then Battle on the wing and Carlisle up forward to complete the set.

Battle on the wing OH BOY

 

[XhazzafootyX]

Jesus imagine Higgins out and Kent stays in
Think I would pull stumps on the year LOL

I wouldn’t bother tuning in

 

[Mowman]

The dumb thing is he could have run in further and kicked it himself.
No one said he was a rocket scientist.

The right thing was to HB to Gresh

 

[cooperrules]

Totally agree - Hayes has gone ahead of Marshall, so Paddy is the ruck and Hayes is the Fwd/second ruck.

Marshall chb

 

[XhazzafootyX]

Paul Hunter ruck
Mckernan chf

 

[The_Steadier]

Not even close to right , have a look at the clip they played On the Couch

I'm a sadist, so I went back and looked at the replay.

It confirmed my opinion from seeing it live right in front of where I was sitting on level 2.

He made no mistake ignorning gresh, who was running into the pocket for what would have been a tight snap.

His mistake was not continuing to run another 10metres in a straight line at the goals like he was.

Have a look where he is when he gathers the ball (ie when he has to make his decision) AND where gresh is calling for it- boundary line into the pocket.




His mistake was completely misjudging how much space he had between him and the nearest defender- that's why he took the shot so much further out than he needed to:



Why pass it to gresh in the pocket?
His screw up was not running to 30m out and having an easy angle, easy shot himself- nothing to do with gresh at all.
Higgins was in a better spot to kick a goal than gresh was the whole time

 

[Nutsngum]

Dropping Higgins if done has to be done as part of a larger cultural shift at the club not just a "send messages" thing.

It has to be a full player buy in to a style of play that everyone commits to or they are out.


That said, Higgin's made a tunnel vision mistake. He didnt ping at goal randomly, he tried to pass to Kent which was a terrible decision but one at least somewhat born in playing a team game. He is currently a solid player that if converted would be one of the better smalls in the comp. I wouldn't drop him.

 

[kernelT]

I'm a sadist, so I went back and looked at the replay.

It confirmed my opinion from seeing it live right in front of where I was sitting on level 2.

He made no mistake ignorning gresh, who was running into the pocket for what would have been a tight snap.

His mistake was not continuing to run another 10metres in a straight line at the goals like he was.

Have a look where he is when he gathers the ball (ie when he has to make his decision) AND where gresh is calling for it- boundary line into the pocket.

View attachment 1350943


His mistake was completely misjudging how much space he had between him and the nearest defender- that's why he took the shot so much further out than he needed to:

View attachment 1350946

Why pass it to gresh in the pocket?
His screw up was not running to 30m out and having an easy angle, easy shot himself- nothing to do with gresh at all.
Higgins was in a better spot to kick a goal than gresh was the whole time

Cmon mate, either gresh walks in for an easy goal or hand passes over the top.

Higgins could have run with Gresham after the handball to receive back or shepard… they could have raffled it in a multitude of ways.

 

[Nutsngum]

I'm a sadist, so I went back and looked at the replay.

It confirmed my opinion from seeing it live right in front of where I was sitting on level 2.

He made no mistake ignorning gresh, who was running into the pocket for what would have been a tight snap.

His mistake was not continuing to run another 10metres in a straight line at the goals like he was.

Have a look where he is when he gathers the ball (ie when he has to make his decision) AND where gresh is calling for it- boundary line into the pocket.

View attachment 1350943


His mistake was completely misjudging how much space he had between him and the nearest defender- that's why he took the shot so much further out than he needed to:

View attachment 1350946

Why pass it to gresh in the pocket?
His screw up was not running to 30m out and having an easy angle, easy shot himself- nothing to do with gresh at all.
Higgins was in a better spot to kick a goal than gresh was the whole time

I cant tell who is playing on Kent there, but if Higgins had handballed to Gresh he would have had to come off Kent to contest Gresham who would pass to an unmanned Kent in the goal square.

 

[The_Steadier]

Cmon mate, either gresh walks in for an easy goal or hand passes over the top.

Higgins could have run with Gresham after the handball to receive back or shepard… they could have raffled it in a multitude of ways.

Easy to say that when it's not a snap decision that needs to be made in a fraction of a second.

He get's the ball, looks up and see's gresh calling for it running into the pocket.
He decides to ignore that because he's in some space and running dead straight at the goals.

Nothing wrong with that decision making from a guy who is paid to kick goals.
If he hadn't screwed up judging just how MUCH space he was in- he dobs it himself from 30m out directly in front or gives a joe the goose instead to the goalsquare.

He screwed up judging the distance to the nearest defender- the decision to ignore gresh was fine

 

[The_Steadier]

I cant tell who is playing on Kent there, but if Higgins had handballed to Gresh he would have had to come off Kent to contest Gresham who would pass to an unmanned Kent in the goal square.

Or higgins (who was running dead straight at goals) could have done the exact same thing, without complicating it by involving gresh.

He had more than enough space to waltz into 30m dead in front to give kent the ball himself:

 

[Jade Buddha]

Ratts is the back his players type. Higgo won’t be dropped.
& he will come good

Despite how bad he was on Friday

 

[_Maximus_12]

Reckon the public hanging is enough of a statement in itself that this is unacceptable behaviour.

 

[Nutsngum]

Or higgins (who was running dead straight at goals) could have done the exact same thing, without complicating it by involving gresh.

He had more than enough space to waltz into 30m dead in front to give kent the ball himself:

View attachment 1350955

I dont disagree with you. Higgins could have ran in another 5 meters and slotted it. But it should have been either that or the handoff to Gresham.

 

[jh38]

The mistake was acknowledged at 3 Quarter Time, Higgins obviously knew he'd done wrong, 5 minutes later he dishes one off to Gresh. No need to drop him, Kent out Sharman in, easy decision

 

[kernelT]

Or higgins (who was running dead straight at goals) could have done the exact same thing, without complicating it by involving gresh.

He had more than enough space to waltz into 30m dead in front to give kent the ball himself:

View attachment 1350955

Semantics… he completely ****ed up a certain goal with a terrible decision, whether he, gresh or Kent kicks it is beside the point.

Gresham was turning the game off his own boot so you’d back him to kick an open goal from 35 metres out on a 45° angle.

Not much chop being hungry if you kick 0.4 which doesn’t even include this scenario.

 

[gringo2011]

I cant tell who is playing on Kent there, but if Higgins had handballed to Gresh he would have had to come off Kent to contest Gresham who would pass to an unmanned Kent in the goal square.

....only for Kent to Josh Bruce the ball through for a point from a meter out.

 

[SaintyMcSaintface]

What are we thinking? Screw it and go tall?
OUT - Kent, Owens, Byrnes
IN - Sharman, Highmore, NWM
Move Sinclair into the middle.

Also, can someone fill me in? Why can’t we compete at stoppages or when the ball goes to ground? Particularly up forward, why are we getting nothing from our small forwards?

 

[Saint Shags]

Semantics… he completely f’ed up a certain goal with a terrible decision, whether he, gresh or Kent kicks it is beside the point.

Gresham was turning the game off his own boot so you’d back him to kick an open goal from 35 metres out on a 45° angle.

Not much chop being hungry if you kick 0.4 which doesn’t even include this scenario.

And I think the biggest point being made in the conversations between the likes of King Dunstall and Roo is that we at present seem to have more players trying to be the game winner. And what we really need is more buy in by doing what the TEAM needs, and not what the INDIVIDUAL needs.

Yes the great teams have great players.
But we aren't even a good team. Because we at this moment don't continually do the Team thing. We are too individually minded.

Do I want Higgins dropped? No.
But there a number of 'individuals' and something does need to happen to change that.

 

[stfan]

We spend more worrying about C grade players getting games or leaving than the players who can actually win you games.

The problem is that we have too many of the former and hardly any of the latter.

 

[gringo2011]

And I think the biggest point being made in the conversations between the likes of King Dunstall and Roo is that we at present seem to have more players trying to be the game winner. And what we really need is more buy in by doing what the TEAM needs, and not what the INDIVIDUAL needs.

Yes the great teams have great players.
But we aren't even a good team. Because we at this moment don't continually do the Team thing. We are too individually minded.

Do I want Higgins dropped? No.
But there a number of 'individuals' and something does need to happen to change that.

You want team standards and team game but you also need some dare and ability to take the game on. Richmond have the right balance. Melbourne played less selfish footy and won a premiership.